Night Terrors (TV story)
Night Terrors 'is the ninth episode of the sixth series of ''Doctor Who. It was written by Mark Gatiss, directed by Richard Clarke and featured Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor, Karen Gillan as Amy Pond and Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams. Overview To be added Synopsis "Please save me from the monsters..." The Doctor makes a call to a terrified little boy named George with a phobia of everything, who locks all of his fears in a cupboard in his bedroom. While initially uncertain, the detection of frightening energy emissions from the cupboard reveals to the Doctor that George is more that just human. All at the same time, the Doctor's companions, Amy and Rory have been deposited into a bizarre world were everything they find appears to be a toy and they are hunted by life-sized peg dolls looking to make them into more of them, trapping them eternally in a living death... Plot As she heads out to work, mother Claire and her husband Alex discuss getting help for their son George, who suffers from an irrational fear of everything. Having put George to bed, Claire tells him to place everything that frightens him, such as the ominous noise the lift makes as turn the lights on and off five times while he intones a plea for help: "Please save me from the monsters." Unbeknownst to them all, George's plea echoes out all the way into space and reaches the Doctor's psychic paper. Intrigued, the Doctor decides to respond to the message with a house call. Landing by the block of flats, the Doctor, Amy and Rory go off to search for the boy who sent the message, calling in on various flats to receive rather unpleasant responses, Amy and Rory go to try the next floor down when the lift suddenly plummets to the bottom floor, when it opens to reveal them gone. The Doctor finds Alex and Claire's flat and Alex tells him about George's fears and the trouble it's been causing them both, citing the idea that he and Claire had discussed regarding sending him somewhere. The Doctor promises to help however he can. Outside, one of Alex's neighbors Mrs. Rossiter takes out the rubbish and hears scuttling in the pile of bin bags; assuming it to be a child trying to scare her, she goes near to investigate and it dragged inside and disappears. Amy and Rory wake up in a darkened room and roam around what appears to be a large, empty mansion-like house where something runs past in the distance behind them. While the Doctor introduces himself to George in the flat, Amy and Rory find themselves in a kitchen where all the utensils are made of wood and there is a giant glass eye in the of the draws. In the flat, the Doctor examines George's cupboard of frightening things while Alex's landlord Purcell arrives looking for the flat's rent. George overhears the conversation and gets frightened again. As the Doctor goes to open the cupboard, he scans it with his sonic screwdriver and the reading is overwhelming, concluding to a terrified Geroge and mortified Alex that his monsters are real. While Amy and Rory look around, finding more strange occurrences with the house such as a door with no doorknob and a clock with hands painted on, Alex is furious that the Doctor's put the fear of God into George again and demands that he leave. The Doctor ignores his outrage and continues making tea, explaining that he's the only expert that can help since George's terror was so powerful that it travelled all the way through time and space to reach him, leaving him baffled. In the dark house, Rossiter wanders around looking for somebody to help, Amy and Rory stumble across a giant Peg Doll in a cupboard that starts moving by itself once they've moved away. In Purcell's flat, as he stands to change the television, he is suddenly swallowed by the carpet. Despite the concerns, the Doctor and Alex both agree to open the cupboard, only to find it full of simple, mundane items that George is scared of. Scanning through Alex and Claire's scrapbook, the Doctor finds that Claire wasn't pregnant in the month before George's birth and Alex suddenly realises that Claire is infertile. George gets frightened and the cupboard swings open, consuming the room in bright white light as the Doctor and Alex are dragged into the cupboard which slams behind them. In the house, Amy and Rory run into Purcell running from one of the Peg Dolls and he is grabbed by it when he is transformed into a Peg Doll himself. Amy and Rory run from the two Peg Dolls and barricade themselves in another room while they attempt to bash their way inside. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Alex wake up in the house and the Doctor surmises that they are inside the dollhouse in the cupboard, a psychic repository for all of his fears while George's true nature was disguised from his friends and family by a perception filter. Amy and Rory, knowing they can't stay barricades forever, decide to let them in and fight their way out; it goes wrong, however, when one of the dolls grabs Amy on their escape and transforms her. Elsewhere, the Doctor and Alex are besieged on all sides by the Dolls and the Doctor finally understands George's abilities and what he is - a Tenza, a species which hatches in space, feels out for foster parents looking to have children and inserts themselves into their lives, assimilating perfectly to the parents' desires. Trapped at the bottom of the stairs with Rory coming from the top, the Doctor cries out for George to open the cupboard as it's his fear controlling everything. Moments before they are swarmed by the Dolls, George fights his fear and opens the cupboard, entering the dollhouse. The dolls start advancing on him as his fear is still controlling them; the Doctor deduces that George's cycle of fear began after he overheard Alex and Claire's conversation about sending him away and his natural instinct as a Tenza is to be wanted, triggering his responses. While Alex is confused about George, knowing that he isn't human, he still forces his way down the stairs and assures George that, whatever he may be or do, he'll never send him away. George's fears are redacted and the psychic repository dissipates, sending everybody back to where they came from and restoring Amy and Purcell. Claire returns home in the morning and is stunned but delighted to see that George's problems have been fixed so promptly and the Doctor departs, assuring Alex that George will grow up and adapt as normally as any human will now (but decides to check in around his stage of puberty as it is, as he puts it, "always a funny time"). Joining Amy and Rory outside, they return to the TARDIS and discuss their next trip. The episode ends with a haunting rhyme and a shot of the Doctor's record of death on the scanner. Cast * The Doctor - Matt Smith * Amy Pond - Karen Gillan * Rory - Arthur Darvill * Alex - Daniel Mays * George - Jamie Oram * Claire - Emma Cunniffe * Purcell - Andy Tiernan * Mrs Rossiter - Leila Hoffman * Julie - Sophie Cosson Crew To be added References To be added Story Notes To be added Continuity To be added Home video and audio releases To be added External Links * Official ''Night Terrors'' page on '''Doctor Who Website